The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-07-29
THE DRINK EVIL.

Mr.. POwderly's Statements Within Rather
Than Outside the Facts The Most
Formidable Enemy of the Working
Men.
His (Mr. Powderly's) vigorous de-
ANNEXATION of liquor drinking, and his
emphatic assertion of the harm it
does the working.men should shake
the prejudice of even the most biased
among the class to whom it is adj
dressed. The statement of his own
radical position on the Temperance
question gives additional force to his
words. The man who neither drinks
himself nor treats others to liquor,
and through whose influence the most
widely-extended labor organization in
the country has been separated, as far
as possible, from the liquor interest,
has right to advise, and should COM
mand the respect of the members of
the order over which he presides.
The first comment .working-men will
make on reading Mr.. Powderly's fig
ures on the cost of liquor drinking viii
undoubtedly be that they are grossly
exaggerated. Such however, is far from
the truth. To those who are informed
as to the amount of malt and alcoholic
liquors manufactured and consumed
in this country Mr.. Powderly's state
ment will be taken as within rather
than outside the facts. According to
the most trustworthy statistics pub
lished, the annual consumption of
domestic and imported distilled spirits
averages 1919, 991 gallons. The
amount of beer consumed averages
about COG, 705, 367 gallons year. The
imported and domestic wines drunk
annually averge 23,163, 425 gallons,
making total annual liquor consump-
ton of 7O8, 068, 1872 gallons. A careful
estimate places the cost of this at SILL
227,888 The same authority calcu-
lates that the drinking population
numbers 1925, All, making an annual
average cost to each person of S47.65.
What proportion of these 708, 068, 1872
gallons of liquor is drunk by working
men it is impossible to estimate exact
ly. But judging from the number of
saloons in the wards of the cities in
habited by those who earn their living
by daily labor, they consume from two
thirds to three-fourths of it. l. IS very
easy to estimate from these statistics
the drain liquor-drinking makes upon
the financial resources of laboring men
and to discern why so few of them lay
by something for rainy day. Liquor
is far more formidable enemy of la
Dor than those inflated bugbears of the
working-man, capital and monopoly.
1t not only drains the pocket, but it
exhausts the vital resources of the
drinker and is constantly lessening his
value as competitor in the field of
labor. The fact that Mr.. Powderly is
endeayoung TO impress upon the
Knights of Labor the magnitude Of the
drink evil is the most encouraging
sign in the outlook for labor. II the
working-men will only place their heel
upon liquor they will have conquered
their most formidable enemy and have
made the attainment of the other OBJ
iects they have in view a comparatively
easy matter. PbiJadeypht0 Press.
Ii we wish to save our Nation. we
mast save our boys and girls, and if
we save our boys and girls we shall
have-what the friends or purity are
demanding clean Nation.-NationeL
W. C. Z. q. Bulletin.
A CINCINNATI paper says the law to
close the saloons at midnight in Gin
cinnati has done more TO suppress row.
dyism and outrages than any half
dozen others on the statute books COM
bined.
Mr.. PowDERLY says: . In one Penn
sylvania county in a single J ear ST.
000, 600 was spent for liquor, and SILL